Guide to equitable housing

Through the Equitable Housing Initiative, Metro is committed to working with partners across the region to find opportunities for innovative approaches and policies that result in more people being able to find a home that meets their needs and income levels.

Brian McCauley and his family found their unusual house in Southwest Portland getting too small with a kid. They ended up broadening their horizons to find a home in Tualatin.

Silvia Rodrigues has lived in a courtyard apartment in Beaverton for three years.

Moving off campus meant moving farther than expected for Portland State University student Jacob Mosiman.

The Equitable Housing Initiative

Through the Equitable Housing Initiative, Metro is committed to working with partners across the region to find opportunities for innovative approaches and policies that result in more people being able to find a home that meets their needs and income levels. This work includes:

develop a shared understanding among elected officials, jurisdictional staff, developers, funders and stakeholders regarding best practices, needs and opportunities for collaboration.

develop and provide technical assistance to support local implementation of best practices to overcome barriers to equitable housing development.

evaluate the feasibility of collaborative approaches and pursue partnerships opportunities to support capacity building, policy and resource development, and research to advance regional equitable housing efforts.

Regional affordable housing bond

On Nov. 6, 2018, Metro-area voters approved a $652.8 million general obligation bond to create affordable homes throughout the greater Portland region. Thanks to voters' support, Metro will now begin working with partners and the community to implement the bond. Learn more

Report: Opportunities and challenges for equitable housing

In January 2016, Metro released a report exploring the nature of the region's housing challenge and providing a four-part strategic framework to respond. Local partners are working to implement strategies in the framework that include:

maximize and optimize resources

leverage growth for affordablity

mitigate displacement and stabilize communities

increase and diversify market-rate housing.

Report summary

Different households have different housing needs, and need different affordable housing strategies. What do they look like? Get a glimpse of recommended actions in this graphic. (Click below to see larger.)

Read the full report

A collaborative framework for creating and preserving housing affordability as the Portland metropolitan region grows

14.24 MBAdobe Acrobat PDFPublished Jan 22, 2016

2016 housing summit

Leaders and staff from Portland-area government, nonprofits, developers, other businesses, labor and the philanthropic sector discussed the report's findings and recommended next steps at a summit on Feb. 1, 2016. Read a recap and watch a video of the summit

Equitable housing grants

On Dec. 1, 2016, the Metro Council awarded $575,000 in grants to help seven communities around the region eliminate barriers to developing equitable housing. These grants were a subset of Metro's community planning and development grant program. Learn more

Brought to Portland by Metro’s Equitable Housing Initiative and Regional Snapshots program, Tony Pickett shared lessons from decades of work trying to create and protect affordability amid rapid growth in two of the country’s hot housing markets.

The grants are aimed at eliminating barriers to development, including zoning changes that could create “missing middle” housing for mid-income residents, evaluation of regulations that could spark more development and implementation of streamlined permitting for affordable housing projects.

The Metro Council was briefed Tuesday on a proposal for its first round of Equitable Housing and Development Grants. The grants come from a small construction tax that helps pay for planning around greater Portland.

On Tuesday, a panel of experts discussed the precarious position of manufactured homes, Oregon's largest source of unregulated affordable housing. They also shared some hopeful signs for preserving and possibly even expanding access in the future.

Whether your roots in the region run generations deep or you moved to Oregon last week, you have your own reasons for loving this place – and Metro wants to keep it that way. Help shape the future of the greater Portland region and discover tools, services and places that make life better today.